Ji Xianlin: Impressions of Germany

Author: Ji Xianlin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: Seventy years of life passed away like a spring dream. Such dreams are not always as light and beautiful as "a single hour of spring night is worth a thousand gold." Sometimes, they cannot avoid being like a scene of surging waves and dragons and snakes competing. No matter how, my life passed away like a dream. Should I have a sense of attachment to these dreams? It should be said that I do. When people grow old, they often enjoy recalling the past. This is true for all ages and countries. I, of course, cannot be an exception. The British often say something like "the lovely times of the past." It resonates with my heart. The past times, when recalled, indeed feel wonderful and lovely. "At that time, we only thought it was ordinary," but once recalled, they are often found to be incomparably wonderful and endlessly memorable. I am now often lost in the memories of the past.------------Ji Xianlin
Ji Xianlin, born in Linqing, Shandong, in 1911. He graduated from the Foreign Language Department of Tsinghua University in 1934 and, the following year, went to Germany as an exchange graduate student from Tsinghua University to study Sanskrit, Pali, and Tocharian at the University of G?ttingen, earning a doctorate in philosophy. In 1946, he returned to China and served as a professor at the Department of Oriental Languages at Peking University. He also held positions such as Vice President of Peking University, Director of the South Asian Research Institute, and Standing Member of the China History Society. He had profound research in ancient Indian languages, classical Indian literature, the history of Indian Buddhism, and Sino-Indian cultural relations. He was a prolific author, with works such as "Discussions on the History of Sino-Indian Cultural Relations," "An Inquiry into the Ramayana," and "Modern Translation" (co-authored), and translated works such as "Sakuntala," "The Five Books," and "The Ramayana."